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Thanks, Doc. Guess I'll see if I can buy it on amazon. All these smart tv's phones, I should be able to watch it somehow. Just too broke from buying all the toys to afford Starz or HBO or anything. Hulu and Netflix, Amazon...etc.

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To day I told my wife I was trying to set the little Howard Miller alarm clock to within a 10th of a second from the atomic clock. I said the best I could do was 100th of a second. No one ever gets my jokes.

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To day I told my wife I was trying to set the little Howard Miller alarm clock to within a 10th of a second from the atomic clock. I said the best I could do was 100th of a second. No one ever gets my jokes.

Spades through email. The flaw was so obvious.

Hmmm, probablynot Brian (that is a coincidence), it is like kicking in an open door ...

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Splurged on toys. Bought three sets of detailed tender trucks for my Santa Fe locos. I'm converting an old Mantua/Tyco 2-8-2, and a newer Athearn Genesis 2-8-2 to SF standoff scale ones. involves replacing the cabs, and tenders, as well as smaller details. I'm using old MDC cabs and oil tender bodies, the new 6 wheel trucks, and 3D printing new tender frames. The frames are based on the Mantua metal frames, shortened and with the bolsters respaced.

I also ordered a Cricut Explore digital cutting machine. One of the type used for scrapbooking. It can cut basswood sheet up to about 3/64th inch. I'll use it for ship frames and parts, as well as for HO structures. I have about 75 "Clever Models" photo realistic structure kit/files, that I'll print on card and cut out with the machine. I won a contest they ran on naming a new line of kits, and got all the download files for 75% off. I have more than enough for most of the buildings on my layout.

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Large hands is a genetic thing from my father's family. My grandfather and great grandfather were enormous men with hands to match.

I have a picture of my great grandfather taken somewhere around the turn of the century, standing in front of his blacksmith's shop with his sons (including my grandfather). My grandfather was 6'3" tall, and his head only came up to my great grandfather's shoulder in height. Huge man.

My grandfather owned a hardware business. They used to buy all sorts of things like nails in bulk quantities and they came packed in wooden barrels/kegs. A keg of nails must have weighed at least 200 pounds I'd guess, but I was too young back then to pick one up so I am not sure exactly. But my grandfather would show off his strength by picking up a full keg of nails using just his fingertips to hold the wooden rim on top of the keg, then he would hold the keg straight out in front of him without bending his arms. He was one of those guys you would never want to get his hands on you for any kind of angry reason.

Here, my grandfather stand on the dock on the far left. Standing beside these two average size men gives an idea of how big he was. When I was a kid, he weighed close to five hundred pounds.

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Yesterday we rapped up a 6 month stretch of heavy overtime with just a few days off here and there, culminating in a 24 hour long shift to complete the install. Today I get to catch up on MSW and sleep.

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Today I sold my '69 Lemans. I wanted to give it to my youngest boy to let him know how proud I am of him, but he'd buying a house. Doesn't know what he might find that needs fixing.

So, I got $4,000 out of it. Not bad considering it's all in parts. Now I can afford to replace the wood that comes with the bluenose. No hurry, I'll be a month rearranging my garage and putting up cabinets and counters...etc. 400 sq feet of model ship building! And my stereo.

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While visiting my father in Baltimore to see my uncle who lives in Sydney, Australia I found out the uncle wanted to go see the Naval Academy. Of course it's one of my favorite places. I have been there many times but it was really nice to see it with someone who has never been. He has been asking my what I do and was a great opportunity to show him the museum there. We all live in this world and although constantly amazed by the works of our members here on MSW, it's nice to see through the eyes of someone with no experience/expectations.

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Worked on my Amati Nina with my supervisor for the shipyard close at hand. But he's laying down on the job and takes "cat naps" often today. Pickels is happy that the Mary Rose is completed now so that he has lots of room again to occupy .

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I found out Wednesday what the janitor on the Titanic, must have felt like! "Sailor, we seem to have a bit of a leak at the bow. Would you mind taking a mop and bucket, and see to it?"

My new job is Maintenance at the local Walmart Super store. Glorified title for janitor. Wednesday, we had a massive storm come through. The roof leaks, a lot . I spent hours pushing the cart around the store continuously mopping up puddles. At least when doing the regular bathroom, and sweep the floors, you can rest a couple minutes while that area floor dries.

This is my first job, after 35 years at a desk, not major manual labor, but I'm no spring chicken either. They keep me running all day, as it is. The only time I stand still is lunch.

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Spent the last few days redrawing some HO scale detail parts for my model trains, and detail parts for my Pyro Skipjack model.

Two of the parts on the skipjack details are long and thin. They warped on the first set I had printed, as to be fair the printer warned they might. So I added thicker sprues along side each, and used tabs to tie them to the sprues.

I had to run the bridge over the top tying everything together, as there is a size limit for the overall outside dimensions, that can be printed, for the material I’m using.

For the model trains I’m designing several parts.

The first are conversion parts to change a Bachman Spectrum 2-8-0 to a Santa Fe 2-8-0 prototype. This model is close, but needs some detail changes. This involves removing a dome and adding a new prototype one slightly forward of the old position, on the boiler. In addition the tender on the model, while close in general shape and size, has the wrong coal bunker for a SF loco of the class I’m modeling.

The solution I decided on is to cover the bunker with a SF type fuel oil bunker. SF used both coal and oil interchangeably, depending on the area of the railroad the locos were stationed on. They had an oil bunker they would lower into the coal bunker, to switch between the fuels. So I designed a cover that will hide the stock coal bunker.

I had drawn the bunker a while back, but just recently discovered that I had mis-scaled the oil fill covers and railing bases. I didn’t look at the prototype bunker drawing I based it on close enough, to see that it had a table of dimensions, for a longer tank than was shown in the drawing. The tank needed for the model turns out to be close the length of the longer tank, in the drawing. When I rescaled the length and width of the bunker to fit the model tender body, the oil fill and base parts got distorted. So I’ve redrawn them correctly, and repositioned them per the table.

The first line of the table is for the shorter tank, as shown in the drawing, the second for the longer tank, that is close to the one for the model.

The extra oil hatches shown are to be used for replacing less detailed, or incorrect ones on other locos, I have.

There are two domes shown. The one piece one is the one I plan to use, The two part one is for initial fitting, to be sure the other is correct.

The third drawing is for conversions of 2-8-2 loco model tenders, I am also doing. Part of the change is to replace the tender with the body from another manufacturer. The drawings are for new tender frames to fit the body. One is for using old Mantua 6 wheel tender trucks, the other for more correctly sized 6 wheel tender trucks put out by a detail parts company. Note that I have the frames mislabeled, the frame with the "M" is for the better trucks, the one label "P" is the one for the Mantua trucks.

I had originally planned on using the Mantua trucks, until I found out about the newer detail parts ones. The Mantua trucks are about 20% longer than the new trucks, and really too big to fit well under the replacement tender body. As the Precision Scale trucks cost about the same as buying used Mantua trucks, this is a no brainer.

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Today I worked on repowering a WW2 motor boat that rescued flyers from the english channel... used for SOE operations also , and was at D-day. The three old engines were 550bhp each, so am replacing them with cummins 550 QSB 6.7 litre units, so it should still hit 50 knots.

Now for the interesting bit... hull designed by a man called Mitchell at Supermarine, who also made something called a Spitfire, top deck aided and abetted by Laurence (of Arabia ), and the design sent to USA where it was used to make PT boats.... a guy called JF Kennedy had a go in one of these apparently... PT109.

Just got some plans so I can work on the engine mounts, and am so tempted to build a model... problem is we have nothing to show what the internals were like, and the top deck varies almost between each boat from what I can see. hull is 10mm mahogany done in a cross ply pattern.

The plan is to get it ready for the D-day boat run in 2018, and take some veterans over to France on it.

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Today I worked on repowering a WW2 motor boat that rescued flyers from the english channel... used for SOE operations also , and was at D-day. The three old engines were 550bhp each, so am replacing them with cummins 550 QSB 6.7 litre units, so it should still hit 50 knots.

Now for the interesting bit... hull designed by a man called Mitchell at Supermarine, who also made something called a Spitfire, top deck aided and abetted by Laurence (of Arabia ), and the design sent to USA where it was used to make PT boats.... a guy called JF Kennedy had a go in one of these apparently... PT109.

Just got some plans so I can work on the engine mounts, and am so tempted to build a model... problem is we have nothing to show what the internals were like, and the top deck varies almost between each boat from what I can see. hull is 10mm mahogany done in a cross ply pattern.

The plan is to get it ready for the D-day boat run in 2018, and take some veterans over to France on it.

Wow! Very interesting bit of history! Was this boat used for the Dunkirk rescue? Love to see some pictures of the boat!

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Today I worked on repowering a WW2 motor boat that rescued flyers from the english channel... used for SOE operations also , and was at D-day. The three old engines were 550bhp each, so am replacing them with cummins 550 QSB 6.7 litre units, so it should still hit 50 knots.

Now for the interesting bit... hull designed by a man called Mitchell at Supermarine, who also made something called a Spitfire, top deck aided and abetted by Laurence (of Arabia ), and the design sent to USA where it was used to make PT boats.... a guy called JF Kennedy had a go in one of these apparently... PT109.

Just got some plans so I can work on the engine mounts, and am so tempted to build a model... problem is we have nothing to show what the internals were like, and the top deck varies almost between each boat from what I can see. hull is 10mm mahogany done in a cross ply pattern.

The plan is to get it ready for the D-day boat run in 2018, and take some veterans over to France on it.

Wow, what an historic project. Sure hope you will post some pictures when your time permits.

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I used DesignCAD for the initial scaling and 2D drawing. Then I imported the 2D into SketchUp. I'm using Shapeways for the printing. I have versions for both their Frosted Extreme Detail, and High Definition Acrylate materials. The High Definition Acrylate requires slightly thicker walls, but may do better on the fine details. Needless to say many hours, and several revisions went into them. Would have probably been much easier to scratch build them, but I enjoy drafting, and maybe I can sell some, if they work out.

I'll be sending in both versions, as well as the tender frames at the end of the month.

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DesignCad can make the stl. files, I`m working with it (V24 with toolkit), and it works fine. Never have worked with shapeways, I use Cura for printing. But I have to wait until my printer is ready built, will take about 1 or 2 monhts til then!

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Since I retired, a cat nap is routine for me now. The only specific time I must do anything is a 9:00 AM shot of insulin for one of our Bichon Dogs who has diabetes.

Ahh...waited a long time and worked real hard to be able to do this, and I am taking full advantage of it.

Cat naps important, usually between one and three in the afternoons at weekends when modelling for me. I still have to wait just over two years before retiring. Having already worked for 47 years I am looking forward to the big day. Have started to buy wooden kits to keep me busy. Just brought myself the Mamoli Newport Baltimore Clipper. First of many.

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I've found that while DesignCAD can generate STL files, you have to draw the 3D first. While I have drawn many 3D drawings in DesignCAD (and still do), SketchUp is easier for many types. This is especially true for printed objects. DesignCAD 3D has one major fault, the objects created by extruding, are hollow. AutoCAD extrusions are "solids". This can lead to problems when translating to real objects.

The lines generated by DesignCAD SKP files are quite thick when opened with SketchUp, while the same file converted to DWG or DXF and imported into Sketchup, are thin. I was disappointed when I found this out. Luckily I have an old pro version of SketchUp, that I use only for importing files. The free version will not import CAD files. Hopefully DesgnCAD will fix this in the future.